Christmas Kickstart

Each year around this time I am in full holiday spirit mode but despite the better than believable times I’ve had over the past few weeks I found myself struggling to acquire that favorite feeling of impending holly. It could be the early Thanksgiving this year or just resisting the sale of forced spirit inherent in virtually every media outlet. That all changed yesterday by a convergence of events and a very good movie; despite some strong winds blowing down a lot of the lights I put up yesterday at the cost of corneal abrasion.

FBR Peeking Out

First of all our FaceTime call with the FBR got off to a raucous start when we caught her in mid-meltdown in typical terrible two fashion. She’s a true chow hound usually but was objecting to her mother putting her in the high chair for dinner. It was cool to see the young parents figure out the dilemma on the fly as my daughter realized she was objecting to not sitting at the dinner table with her parents. She removed the front tray and scooted the chair up to the table and peace was restored to the galaxy. The FBR immediately began charming her way out of the emotional state she’d rendered herself into.

Gearing Up for Another Tough Day with Her Wolfpack

The date night movie that followed, The Man Who Invented Christmas, takes most of the credit for a resurrection of holiday spirit though. I will first admit that I am an unrepentant lover of all things Christmas related and therefore have always held Charles Dickens’ The Christmas Carol as something approaching holy writ. This film offers a fascinating insight into Dickens’ life as he created this timeless classic. The book’s characters leap from his imagination to hold conversations with him as he puts together the story of Ebenezer Scrooge’s ghostly redemption. It was akin to greeting old friends as the iconic characters appeared or classic lines were uttered. Dickens had to balance the emotional baggage of his own youth as the story evolves around his chaotic present day life. It evolves into a delightful swirl through Victorian London as the various inspirations for Dickens’ work emerge throughout. Old stalwarts Jonathan Pryce, as Dickens’ father, and Christopher Plummer, as Scrooge, are their usual perfection but the movie truly belongs to Dan Stevens in the lead role. He’s been so good in everything he’s done – someone to watch for the future. If you enjoy writing you should see this movie with its proper respect for this lion of literature but mostly for spirit of Christmas in all its unabashed sentimentality. If you can’t enjoy that consider yourself a humbug.

The Bad Cinema project count rises to #70 out of 100, with The Creeping Terror, possibly the worst movie ever made as a mobile shag carpet consumes very suspecting Californians.